Mike Williams Likes His Odds At Punt Returner

“Yeah, I get the ball in my hands. It’s almost like a 65 or 70 percent chance that I’m going to get the ball on that play. So I like that,” Williams told Joe yesterday. “[Coaches] have been telling me I’ve been catching the punts real good. I didn’t do it in college or high school. I guess they see something in me that they want to bring out.”

“I’m going to try and be the best punt returner in the league. They put me back at punts and I’m trying to work there as hard as I do at receiver.”

Joe gets the Bucs’ interest in Williams at punt returner. Aside from his very sure hands, he’s explosive. But Williams winning that job also would give the Bucs more flexibility with their gameday roster, to activate an extra defensive end or cornerback, for example.

We know Mike has great hands….but will he put one of them up for a fair catch?….I worry about putting our #2 receiver in that spot.
Surely there is someone else that can do this.
How about Myron? We seem to keep him for a reason….

If this keeps up then it’ll feel like what the Redskins (yeah I said that racial word) did with Rg3. Pretty much putting him in harms way. It’s not a smart idea, then again the Eagles do it with Djacks

I don’t like this at all, we need Mike, if he returns punts, it will also increase his chances of getting injured, not only that, he’s also going to be somewhat winded while having to line up at flanker immediately after that, and more injuries occur when a payer is not at 100%-punt returners are a dime a dozen! When something like this comes up, I immediately think of Nathan Wonsley, a promising young RB, who ended up in a halo to keep his head straight after Leeman Bennet thought it’d be a good idea to play him on Special Teams, all it took was one hit and that ended what could’ve been a great career for Nate. It’s not worth it!

Personally I don’t like the thought of Mike being out there returning punts. He’s our number 2 receiver and the thought of him getting absolutely clobbered out there, (we’ve ALL seen those hits), makes me hope one of the other candidates will step up and win the punt return job.

While I agree with the sentiment that you don’t want to run the risk of injury to a starting receiver, they’re dressed for a reason.

I’m sure fans of other teams say the same thing when their starting receiver is fielding a punt. I think even Wes Welker was still fielding punts while putting up 100+ reception years.

@Joe,

On your last statement as to the fact that it would be beneficial to open up a roster spot by allowing multiple jobs: if your KR can’t perform the duties of PR (which would hopefully be a guy that could play either RB/WR/DB), wouldn’t you still be “wasting” a gameday roster spot? I highly doubt the coaching staff would use a roster spot on a guy that can only return punts.

Eh whos to say mike will wont get injured at WR? We still dont know exactly what we have behind Mike Williams at WR yet. No one has proven themselves, but not many have gotten a legit shot to step in if #19 were to go down. Im all for it Mike, earn that paycheck!

I would say Williams has a far better chance of getting injured on a crossing pattern over the middle than on a punt return. It’s easy to get blindsided on a lot of routes but returning a punt you can at least see what’s coming at you. I think he’ll do fine if he gets the job. Still, it would surprise me if he’s the only guy they can find to return punts. My guess is Page will end up being the return man. Good hands and better speed.